Abstract

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. There is evidence of impaired left ventricular (LV) function associated with obesity, which may relate to cardiovascular mortality, but some studies have reported no dysfunction. Ventricular function data are generally acquired under resting conditions, which could mask subtle differences and potentially contribute to these contradictory findings. Furthermore, abnormal ventricular mechanics (strains, strain rates, and torsion) may manifest prior to global changes in cardiac function (i.e., ejection fraction) and may therefore represent more sensitive markers of cardiovascular disease. This study evaluated LV mechanics under both resting and stress conditions with the hypothesis that the LV mechanical dysfunction associated with obesity is exacerbated with stress and manifested at earlier stages of disease compared to baseline.

RESULTS: Reductions in LV peak longitudinal strain at baseline were first observed in the obese group after 42 weeks, with no differences in systolic strain rates or torsion. Conversely, reductions in longitudinal strain and circumferential and radial strain rates were seen under inotropic stress conditions after only 22 weeks on diet. Furthermore, stress cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) evaluation revealed supranormal values of LV radial strain and torsion in the obese group early on diet, followed by later deficits.

CONCLUSIONS: Differences in left ventricular mechanics in obese mice are exacerbated under stress conditions. Stress CMR demonstrated a broader array of mechanical dysfunction and revealed these differences at earlier time points. Thus, it may be important to evaluate cardiac function in the setting of obesity under stress conditions to fully elucidate the presence of ventricular dysfunction.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-27-2015

Notes/Citation Information

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12968-015-0180-7

Funding Information

This work was supported by Postdoctoral Fellowships through the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (T32 HL91812 and F32 HL123215), a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH (P20 GM103527), the University of Kentucky Cardiovascular Research Center, NIH grant R01 EB001763, and grant number UL1TR000117 from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), funded by the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and supported by the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, and contributions made by local businesses and individuals through a partnership between Kentucky Children’s Hospital and Children’s Miracle network.